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Updated: June 21, 2025
'The old Merrimac, you know, men, that was burnt last year when the Yankees left Norfolk? well, we've raised her, and cut her down to her berth deck, and made of her what we call an iron-clad. An iron-clad is a new man-of-war that's going to take the place of the old.
In the harbor, August 5, 1864, lay the iron-clad ram, Tennessee, and three gunboats, commanded by Admiral Buchanan, formerly captain of the Merrimac. Farragut determined to force a passage. Before six o'clock in the morning his fleet of four monitors and fourteen wooden ships, the latter lashed together two and two, got under way, Farragut taking his station in the main rigging of the Hartford.
By applying the formula of induction from effect to cause, the disaster occasioned by the Merrimac, and any further havoc to be made by this iron vessel, all this is to be credited to McClellan. If Norfolk had been taken months ago, then the rebels could not have constructed the Merrimac.
At a critical moment in the fight the "Merrimac" ran aground; and the "Monitor" steamed around her several times, seeking for weak places in which to plant a shot Once Worden dashed at his adversary's screw, hoping to disable it, but missed by perhaps two feet.
Among the six at our late dinner was our first scholar, the thorough-bred and accomplished engineer who held the city of Lawrence in his brain before it spread itself out along the banks of the Merrimac. There, too, was the poet whose National Hymn, "My Country, 't is of thee," is known to more millions, and dearer to many of them, than all the other songs written since the Psalms of David.
Commander Craven, with the Tecumseh, singled out the ram Tennessee, under the command of Admiral Franklin Buchanan, who had charge of the Merrimac on the first day of her fight with the Monitor. Both were ironclads and Buchanan was as anxious to fight Craven as the latter was to fight him.
June 21. At three o’clock in the morning the admiral and Flag Lieutenant Staunton got into the launch to make an inspection of the Merrimac. The working gangs were still on board of her, and the officers of the flag-ship stood with their glasses focused on the big black hull that was to form an impassable obstacle for Spain’s best ships.
"He selected the collier Merrimac, a big iron steamer 300 feet long, stripped her of all valuable movables, and fastened a lot of torpedoes to her bottom. Each one of these was sufficiently powerful to sink the ship, and all were connected by wires with a button on the bridge.
I tried to procure a room for her at the Merrimac, and when they refused her, I gave up my own apartment to her and went away." "But you went back!" he cried. "You went back, Hewlett!" "I can tell you no more," I answered. "Do you believe what I have said to you?" He looked hard into my face. "Yes," he said simply. "And it makes all the difference in the world to me."
As they were riding back to Richmond the general said to Vincent: "I will tell you a little more than I told the others, Wingfield. I believe the Merrimac will go out the day after to-morrow. I wish I could get away myself to see the affair; but, unfortunately, I cannot do so. However, if you like to be present, I will give you three days' leave, as you have been working very hard lately.
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